“Are you in there?” Eric asked loudly as he knocked on the ensuite bathroom door. “Don’t make me come in there,” he joked. No response. “Okay, I hope you’re decent, cause I’m coming in,” he said awkwardly. The enticing aroma of roses filled his nostrils. The tiles were clean and shining, the towels were fluffy, but Floriana was not there.
Eric pulled his phone out of his pocket and called Floriana’s number. It went unanswered, but the phone was not turned off. He tapped the Find Your Agent’s Phone application which Bill, Valerie’s son, had created and called Floriana’s number again.
A red dot started blinking on a map, showing that the signal from Floriana’s phone was coming from within the House of the Rose. He tapped a small icon on the screen, and a detailed map of the House appeared, indicating that the signal was coming from the basement. Bill, you are a genius, he thought as he realized that the application did not just show her dot as being part of the house, but it was able to pinpoint the basement.
“Is there even a basement?” he asked himself loudly. He ran down the hallway and knocked on the door of the Master’s bedroom.
“Is there a basement? In this building, is there a basement?” he inquired, puffing when the old man opened the door.
“Good morning to you too,” the Master replied, annoyed by the intrusion. He was dressed in a suit, as every day, with his staff in hand.
“I’m sorry. But it’s serious. Is there a basement?” Eric insisted.
“Why are you asking?”
“Because Floriana is missing, and her phone signal is coming from somewhere underground, beneath where we are standing,” Eric explained, out of breath.
“Floriana is missing? Maybe she’s gone for a walk. Wait, are you spying on her?”
“Actually, with this application Bill has created, I can spy on everyone. I’m sure something is wrong. We were supposed to meet at 6:30, have breakfast and then go for shooting training. I know how excited she was about it—she wouldn’t have missed it for a walk,” Eric explained.
“You are right. Come with me,” the Master said as he started limping down the hallway, his black silver staff in his hand. Eric followed him silently, trying to catch his breath.
“There is a basement indeed,” the Master said after they entered his study.
“And why I was never told?” Eric asked, flustered.
“Because you wouldn’t have gained anything by this knowledge,” the Master replied strictly, closing the door behind them.
His gaze fell upon the corner of his desk that Floriana had left on the surface of the heavy furniture. “How on earth did this happen?” the Master yelled, disconcerted.
Despite his aching legs, the Master walked as fast as he could to his desk and took the angular piece of wood in his hand. “Do you see this? It’s the key to that door over there!” He showed him the sliding door, which was now wide open. “And that door was supposed to stay closed for everyone except me,” he exclaimed.
“Don’t look at me. I didn’t even know this door existed until now,” Eric grumped. After checking on the blinking red dot again, he approached the door and looked inside the dark, cold space. “It seems that her phone is signaling from down there. I’m going down to check it out,” he stated.
“Wait, take this with you. You’ll need it,” the Master said as he took a flashlight out of one of his desk drawers. “I can’t understand how on earth she would end up down there. This door has been closed for years. How could she manage to open it?”
“She’s your blood, remember?” Eric cackled before he started descending the slopping stone stairs.
ERIC DROPPED ALL HIS weight into one of the leather armchairs in the Master's study room, where the door to the mysterious crypt was once again firmly closed. He felt three pairs of eyes staring at him, full of agony and anticipation. Ganni, Valerie, and Carson were hoping to hear some good news from him. But he did not have any to share. He had been searching for Floriana the entire day. After they all looked in every corner of the Clocksworth Academy, even Mirko and Elena, the cook, joined the search party as they separated and comped every street and piazza. The sun had started to set when Eric finally returned the Academy, exhausted and disappointed.
“It's like she vanished into thin air,” he said.
“No one saw her there. It's like she left Weengarts, but how did she manage to do that?” said Carson.
“I showed her picture to everyone at the train station. Her face didn’t look familiar to anyone,” added Valerie.
“Mirko called the Weengarts clinic. No one under her name or with her features has been admitted the last twenty-four hours,” the Master said, disheartened.
“There must be a logical explanation; she can’t just have disappeared. Or evaporated,” Eric concluded.
A veil of silence covered them, as everyone was lost in their thoughts.
“We have to cancel tomorrow's summit of the Masters,” Ganni finally said in a trembling voice. “No, we won't cancel it,” he changed his mind. “The Order of the Black Rose surpasses any personal or family issues. The Macedonia incident and all scientific findings Declan presented us with indicate that we are at the beginning of a timeline alteration. The world as we know it depends on us.”
“Let's hope Floriana is playing a prank on us. I'll take care of it when she returns,” Valerie promised.
“If she returns,” the Master said.
Silence reigned again as all four of them dived into their own thoughts.
“Where is Declan?” Eric's voice broke the silence.
“He left right after our meeting last night,” Valerie explained.
“Did anyone else find him weird or was it just me?” asked Carson.
They looked at each other, baffled.
“I wouldn’t call him weird, but I have to admit, he made me feel uncomfortable. Those icy eyes of his...” Valerie shivered.
“I called Washington before I met with him and I received excellent references for him,” the Master said and frowned. “Valerie, call them again. Let them know that Dr. Davis is on his way back. Request a briefing regarding the situation in the Macedonia village and”—he paused briefly—"ask them about President Alvarez's whereabouts. Inquire about information on the scientific team that accompanies her during her inspection in Macedonia. Especially ask about a female scientist with silver curly hair.”
Valerie nodded with a questioning look that the Master avoided. With a tired smile on her beautifully mature face, she exited the room.
“I’m starving. Elena is making lunch. Will you join us in the dining room?” asked Carson.
“Eric will join you. Tell Elena to put the kettle on. I need a cup of tea,” the Master said.
“I'll join you in few minutes,” Eric said as Carson left the study room.
“How are you?” he asked his mentor.
“Don’t worry about me. I hope Floriana is back before I have to tell Vittor that his sister is missing.”
After a short silence, Eric cleared his throat, and then asked the question that had been puzzling him for hours. “What’s in that basement?”
“Relics of the Order’s past. Remnants of our glorious history, valuable antiquities our ancestors owned, modern technology our scientists created... I can only imagine how thrilled Floriana felt when she discovered it. But why would she leave without leaving a note behind? I would have scolded her for sneaking in there without my permission, but I wouldn’t discipline her. That’s what we train her to be; curious and courageous, even if that sometimes means insubordinate behavior. And why did she leave the door open? Had she placed the wooden corner back on, no one would have known that she had found the way to the crypt. And as far as I can tell, she didn’t take anything from down there. Despite my aching knees, I managed to go down the staircase and look around. Nothing seems to be missing, although I need to check again across my inventory,” the Master said, crossing his arms.
“Why did you keep it secret from
me?” Eric insisted.
“Because it wasn’t for you to know. Only the Grand Master of the Order has the key to this crypt. And they share the secret only with the person who will succeed them after they die. In my case, that would be Valerie. She is second in the hierarchy of the Order and the one who will take over as Grand Master of the Order of the Wild Rose once I pass away,” Ganni said. “Now, go and have your lunch. When Floriana comes back, I’ll send her to you. As her mentor, you’re responsible for her detention.” He smirked.
Eric stood up and was walking towards the door when the Orologion on the Master’s ring started flashing and vibrating. With his hand on the door handle, he turned around and looked at his mentor.
Pale as a ghost, Ganni Rose looked at the Orologion red surface and turned his gaze at Eric, who was standing quiet in front of the door.
“Please, call Valerie in. She will replace me as chairman of the board in the Masters’ summit,” the old man said as he trembled in his effort to stand.
“Why? Are you going somewhere?” Eric asked bewildered.
“I’m going to meet Winston Churchill. And you’re coming with me.”
CHAPTER 17
*
“WHAT THE HECK?”
A thump echoed through the half-lit room as Floriana rolled off a wooden bed and fell onto the carpeted floor.
She had just woken up from a long, deep sleep and found herself alone and disoriented in an unknown place. Her body felt heavy as stone, and her head whirled like she was sinking in a sand dune.
She had been drugged there, in the secret crypt she had just discovered in the Clocksworth Academy. Or had it been a few hours before? She looked around the room, but there was no clock. Was it night or day? She could not tell, as she could not know whether she was still in the Academy building.
Fighting the blurriness in her eyes, Floriana took another look around. The room she was in looked nothing like a room at the Clocksworth Academy. She seemed to be in the attic of a 1940s building furnished only with a bed and a small round table with two wooden chairs. A few rays of sunlight slipped through the heavy curtain at the other side of the room. Dizzy as she was, she managed to stand up and walk across the small room. As soon as her eyes became accustomed to the light, she looked anxiously out the window. Tall oaks and hickories dropped shadows of their leaves over the two-story building she was apparently in. The sun was up, but it felt so chilly that she had to rub her arms to feel warmer.
“I have a feeling we're not in Weengarts anymore,” she mumbled as she gazed at the empty courtyard below her window. Still feeling dizzy, she moved away and tottered toward the closed door.
“Damn, I feel like I’m on a swaying ship.”
Carefully taking one step after another, she managed to keep her balance until she reached the door. Her hand was an inch away from the door handle when it turned slowly to the left. As the door opened at a sluggish pace, she hid behind it. When a dark figure moved carefully into the room, Floriana took a big breath and struck out with her foot screaming incomprehensibly. The young man she had targeted folded over his legs before he tumbled to the floor, followed by Floriana, who had lost her balance.
“What the heck are you doing?” he moaned as he turned his face to her.
“Vittor, what are you doing here?” Floriana exclaimed with surprise.
“I came to see how you are doing,” Vittor groaned in pain.
“No, I mean what are we both doing here? What is this place? And how did I get here?” Floriana bombarded him with questions as she crawled towards him.
“Declan brought you here.” Vittor propped his body painfully up against his arms and raised his torso with difficulty. “When did you become a ninja?” He gurgled in pain.
“Long story, I’ll explain later,” she answered as she helped him sit on bent legs. “Tell me now; how did he bring me here?”
“He drugged you, flashed a silver stylus, and here you are.” His tone was serious.
“Stylus? What stylus? And why would Declan drag me here? Why are you here? And where is here?””
Vittor folded his arms around his belly. “You really knocked me down. You should have done that to Declan.”
“I didn’t even see him,” she grumbled. “He must have come from behind. One moment I was at Clocksworth Academy, and the next I was here.” She chose not to mention the secret crypt she had found beneath their grandfather’s study.
“Well, first things first. We are in a small village in Germany which is called Kaiserreich and we’re in 1945. Dr. Declan Davis is a double agent who works for both the Order of the Black Rose and a secret society that believes in Aryan Supremacy.”
“And what are you doing here with them, Vittor?” Floriana asked, dazed.
“I made a mistake, and now I don’t know how to fix it.”
“LET ME START WITH A flashback. Do you remember how the Bacterium-Z outbreak started?” Vittor asked.
“Of course I remember. If it wasn’t for Bacterium-Z, I wouldn’t have been reunited with you.”
“Well, then you probably remember that it all started during World War II because of an alchemist our grandfather worked with, Dr. Foulkaneli, was working on the creation of a superhuman, the ultimate soldier, who could be used both on the battlefield and for city surveillance. It took our people decades to retrieve Dr. Foulkaneli’s notes from a leather folder locked in a KGB underground storage facility in Moscow. It was Dr. Foulkaneli’s findings that our father, Ross Rogers, used to create Bacterium-Z, which almost caused the apocalypse and divided our family, causing so much pain to all of us.” Vittor's eyes had turned the dark blue of a wavy sea.
“I don’t understand. All that happened in the past, our past. What does it have to do with us being here right now?” A lump lodged in Floriana’s throat as she feared what Vittor would reveal.
“Dr. Foulkaneli is here.”
“What?” Floriana let out a small cry of surprise.
“Quiet!” Vittor shushed her. “I know, it’s hard to believe, but he’s here. I met him.”
“What is he doing here? And what are you doing here with him, Vittor?” she asked.
“I added one more bad decision to the Rogers family's long list.” He lowered his eyes apologetically.
“What do you mean? And how on earth did you get in touch with Dr. Foulkaneli? And why are you in 1945? You aren’t a traveler?”
“Partly, it’s Grandpa’s fault.”
“What?”
“It seems our dear grandpa has a secret, or more specifically, he has one more secret he has not shared with us. He had not always been Grand Master of the Order of the Black Rose. He was a respectable scientist before he was anointed Master of Weengarts. As you know, those that take the seat of Master of Weengarts are traditionally appointed Grand Master, Master of all Masters. As a prominent young scientist, he gained Dr. Foulkaneli’s complete confidence, and it was with him that that mad alchemist shared all his incredible discoveries. The Water of Life was one of them. Yes, our sweet grandpa has found the way to expand his life expectancy.”
“And I thought I was the black sheep of the family.” Floriana burst out laughing, forcing Vittor to signal her to calm down.
“Shush! I told you to keep quiet. Actually, our family has more than one black sheep. You haven’t heard the whole story yet.”
“I’m all ears.” Floriana shrank back.
Vittor pointed at her. “And don’t interrupt me again. They don’t know I’m here. I have to prepare you for what you are going to face soon. The ugly truth. So, let me just spit it out.”
Floriana nodded.
“The Water of Life is just one of their incredible discoveries,” Vittor resumed his narration. “It doesn’t make you immortal. It’s more like a powerful medicine that cures life-threatening diseases. I had never heard of it until I arrived here. And here comes the difficult part; how I got here.”
He cleared his throat. “I was an infant when our mother m
oved to London with you and left me back in Weengarts to be raised by our grandfather. To speak the truth, she abandoned me. She chose you over me.”
“I ... I...” Floriana stuttered.
“I said don’t interrupt me,” Vittor scoffed. “You are making this too difficult for me. I’m not saying it was your fault, yet I must admit that there have been times since we met that I blamed you. I know it wasn’t your fault; you were only two years old when the two of you left. It was our mother's decision. She took you with her to London and cut any ties to me, her own child. I didn't know that you existed until Eric brought you to the Weengarts. I was then told that you are my sister and that our mother found a tragic death in a car accident somewhere in Latin America ten years ago. A whole new world opened to me. I had a sister. My grandfather wasn’t the only family I had anymore. I had a sister close to my age, and I was excited. We could talk about things people of our age talk about, not just the science stuff I talked about with Grandpa, or the dull Order business I discuss with Eric. I had always been a geek, an introvert, and making new friends wasn't easy for me. I was always happy with our conversations. You are a smart and charming girl. I loved hanging out with you. But there was always a thorn there, stinging my heart. Why did our mother choose you over me? That thought kept coming back into my mind, swirling around, driving me crazy. Until I met her.”
“You met who?” Floriana gasped.
“Our mother. I met our mother.”
“You met our mother? ... How...? But she's dead...”
Floriana felt like she was losing her senses, like the blood had been drained from her body.
“She isn't dead. She faked her death, and with the help of Dr. Foulkaneli’s secret society, she placed the corpse of another woman into the smashed car and set it on fire. They even managed to replace the DNA sample the local coroner took from the dead body with our mother's, and then Althea ... was officially dead.”
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